We are being noticed

President Goettl passed along this message from the Maricopa City Manager's office.  It is in response to all the help the Boy Scouts and members of the Church gave in the last flood preparation. 

"Flood Preparations: Maricopa Fire Department is very thankful to the groups who came out to assist fire crews last week in preparation for forecasted potential flooding. The fire department urges all residents to always be prepared for such emergencies by ensuring there is always an adequate amount of water, non-perishable food, spare batteries, blankets, candles, full tank of fuel in resident’s personal vehicles, and spare cash on hand. Being prepared takes little effort but the benefits are immense. Having each family in Maricopa prepare for such events in this proactive manner allows the emergency services to concentrate on those areas and people most in need of services during these times."

WOW, the Maricopa Fire Department has caught the vision of food storage and encourages you to be prepared.  We echo that.  

The year long Stake Food Storage Challenge is officially over but we encourage you to keep expanding your food storage as you see and identify needs.  Also, how about other areas of preparedness.  For instance, do you have a tent that will fit your family if the need arose?  How about sleeping bags, cook stoves and serving ware?  What about after dark lighting, extra clothing and socks?  Does everyone in the family have a pair of warm closed in shoes, long pants and long sleeved shirts, hoodies and jackets?  Are you keeping your fuel tanks at half full or above?  Do you have on hand extra toilet paper and other personal needs?  Not last or least, how about extra cash on hand to get you through an emergency?  We will be talking about these and other things in the next coming months.  

I saw a commercial between the sessions of General Conference that tickled my funny bone.  It showed a man in the kitchen in the dark eating out of a bowl.  His wife turned on the light and asked him if that was food storage he was eating.  With a spoon full of what looked like noodles, he just had a sheepish guilty look on his face.  His wife then said, that's for emergency's.  His response was, the power is out.  She then flipped the light switch and the light came on.  He then slowly brought the spoon full of noodles to his mouth and put it in while she disgustedly turned around and left.  He then said, it's macaroni and cheese.  We SHOULD be eating our food storage, and then replacing what we use.  If you don't, how will you know how to use it when you need it and have developed different ways to prepare it?  For those of you who made the 72 hour kit in a can, I hope you used it this weekend to see how it was.  I did and it was good except the instant Quaker oats.  If you didn't use it, be sure to use it soon as some of the items only had a one year shelf life. 

Have fun with your food storage.

Bob and LouAnn